Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?

[Swinglowandslow]

Doesn’t sound terribly fair. We lockdown to protect the vulnerable, they get a jab, we’re left in a state of limbo whilst those that have been jabbed live it up. Can’t see that going so well

Not quite the situation. We lockdown to protect the vulnerable, yes. But we also lockdown to protect all, including you.
Because if the hospitals are broken by Covid then they are broken for everyone and all normal hospital functions.
Vaccinations are moving at a pace, and it won't be long until most adults are done.
Patience. !Not patients ?

 

[Hobbit]

We don't have numbers of fatalities by ages here. But if we use the US' numbers from 10th of February,

3567 deaths in ages 0-35.
443,107 total deaths.

All under 35's in the USA make 0.8% of the deaths, Women under 35 are at even less risk of fatality. The top 4 risk groups are still more likely to die than an under 35 after vaccination from what I'm seeing, unless I'm reading the very early data wrong. It would be political suicide.

I'm told as a young person we're all in this together, Is that only when suits? I know you are right and it's coming, other countries have it in the works. But I'd have thought the government would try and calm the majority of the population who are still much lower risk and make the whole thing a bit fairer. Not to mention if it was to get bad and another strain ruined our progress up to now, you can forget about those that got left behind following any restrictions.

COVID-19 deaths by age and deaths from COVID-19 only - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

 

[D-S]

I can’t imagine any UK leisure businesses only allowing vaccine passports holders entry in the short term, it would be a PR nightmare as they would be seen to be discriminating against the young. Imagine the headlines when a father and mother can go out to the cinema/theatre/restaurant but their children can’t. However I can imagine that might be the case once all over 18’s have at least been offered the first dose.
On the other hand if other countries require such a passport as a condition of entry it will be difficul to deny UK citizens the necessary paperwork. The pressure from the Mediterranean countries not to lose another season will be huge, they can see the billions of Euros sitting in UK pockets and they will move heaven and earth to,get their share, especially as the slower vaccine roll out in the other countries’ holidaymakers that pump money into their economies every summer will make this year a tough one anyway.

 

[Hobbit]

We don't have numbers of fatalities by ages here. But if we use the US' numbers from 10th of February,

3567 deaths in ages 0-35.
443,107 total deaths.

All under 35's in the USA make 0.8% of the deaths, Women under 35 are at even less risk of fatality. The top 4 risk groups are still more likely to die than an under 35 after vaccination from what I'm seeing, unless I'm reading the very early data wrong. It would be political suicide.

I'm told as a young person we're all in this together, Is that only when suits? I know you are right and it's coming, other countries have it in the works. But I'd have thought the government would try and calm the majority of the population who are still much lower risk and make the whole thing a bit fairer. Not to mention if it was to get bad and another strain ruined our progress up to now, you can forget about those that got left behind following any restrictions.

You might have 50-60 years of holidays to come your way. Someone who is 65 will have a whole lot less. Begrudging them a few decent holidays whilst they're still fit enough seems awfully... petulant?

 

[rudebhoy]

A couple of examples of a total lack of logic yesterday.

1. Scotland have said all international arrivals need to be quarantined in a hotel on arrival. This seems like a good policy to me. Family arrive from the US, get sent to a hotel, only to be told later that it was a mistake as they had caught a connecting flight in Ireland which is in something called the Common Travel Area and not subject to these restrictions. So now, rather being in "managed isolation", they can go home and self-quarantine. Can see connecting flights from dublin now becoming very popular.

2. At Heathrow, arrivals from "red zone" queueing up side by side with those not from the red zone. Massive risk of cross-contamination. Surely it would have been simple to have one queue for red zone and one queue for everyone else?

 

[DanFST]

It is not just about deaths. Long Covid and downstream complications of disease may prove to be an even bigger problem than the acute issues, and hospital and ICU stays are very traumatic for patients and families.

Long Covid is a slight concern, agreed. Using me as an example. I've already had it, felt crap for months. Back to normal now. How can getting it again effect me long term?

In regards to hospitalisation stays. EDIT: Incorrect data used. Is their more detailed data on admissions by age? the gov.uk boundry of 18-64 isn't helpful at all. As we know the rate goes up considerably after 45.

Must add, stayed at Whipps Cross ICU for a bit, everyone was absolutely fantastic and treated me amazingly. Not the norm in the slightest, but it doesn't have to be traumatic!

 

[road2ruin]

My view of a Vaccine Passport for internal access to pubs/bars etc should only be used once everyone has been given the opportunity to have a vaccine, it would be incredibly unfair to discriminate against the young and you risk causing yet another division in society. Remember, there are no guarantees that there won't be another lockdown further down the line, would you seriously expect those who are less affected by the virus to agree to be locked up again having seen all the oldies parading around in pubs whilst they are told they cannot have access. Obviously the same cannot apply for any international travel as other countries will have their own rules with regards access and I would expect us to do the same.

 

[Deleted member 21784]

I'd like to see us return to the tiers but slightly different.. tier level the same accross the board .. just let different things open

So say next month we go to tier 3 as a nation

Try and move to tier 2 by may

Tier 1 by the summer

By then everyone vaccinated and return to "normal"

Not ideal but got to be better than nothing

 

[backwoodsman]

It is not just about deaths. Long Covid and downstream complications of disease may prove to be an even bigger problem than the acute issues, and hospital and ICU stays are very traumatic for patients and families. It is not really acceptable policy to allow the under 50s (not just the under 35s) to have Covid run through their population. It will encourage more mutations and the chance of a strain that defeats the vaccination and we are back to worse than square one again. Setting this up as the young suffering to protect the old is a mistaken view to take.

Not sure how many times you've had to say this (and can't be bothered to go back through the thread & count). But, with a bit of luck, just a few more repetitions and your message might finally get through to where it's needed.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

We're not great at the moment - my Mrs is very down about our lad as he is heading back into a dark place in his head at not being able to get any sort of work. He is desperate for something to fill in until the performing arts sector restarts but he just sees that prospect disappearing off into the distance. And so my Mrs has been taking herself off to bed early evening - just feeling so very down.

Our lad was hopeful that things were looking up as three weeks ago he had an interview for a Currys PC World 'on-line customer support' role, but there were thousands of applicants for the jobs (no surprise) and despite being well qualified for the role he heard late last week that he hadn't been successful. And living off UC without building up any debt is really very tough - especially when power has been gobbling up money through the cold spell - and work prospects looking ahead are 'not bright'.

He is by nature very positive about life - the glass can be full even when it is only half full. It's rarely half empty or as empty as it is now. And if such as he is really struggling then I can imagine serious mental health and financial struggles for many in the mid20s-mid30s age group who have lost their jobs or seen their career grind to a halt - for some see it collapse.

Anyway - he is very much more fortunate than many as he has us to help him out - as much as he hates coming to us for support as for him that just smacks of failure.

 

[larmen]

You might have 50-60 years of holidays to come your way. Someone who is 65 will have a whole lot less. Begrudging them a few decent holidays whilst they're still fit enough seems awfully... petulant?

Someone that had 45 years of holidaying can go for more, and someone who only had 10 doesn’t get a chance to catch up?

It’s a 2 way street, isn’t it?

 

[road2ruin]

I'd like to see us return to the tiers but slightly different.. tier level the same accross the board .. just let different things open

So say next month we go to tier 3 as a nation

Try and move to tier 2 by may

Tier 1 by the summer

By then everyone vaccinated and return to "normal"

Not ideal but got to be better than nothing

I'm not sure that'd go down well, for most they just want a bit of socialisation with people and so telling them that they're in Tier 3 until May really doesn't change their lives much from being in lockdown now.

 

[larmen]

I'd like to see us return to the tiers but slightly different.. tier level the same accross the board .. just let different things open

So say next month we go to tier 3 as a nation

I think you are right and it needs a nation approach. Someone ‘over there’ might not follow restrictions as much if someome ‘elsewhere’ already has more freedoms. National lockdown brought the numbers down, regional restrictions let them go up.

 

[Deleted member 16999]

Wife and Son just had first vaccine (pfizer) Huge shout out to the Dr’s, Nurse and volunteers at the Med Centre, very efficient, Thank you all.??

 

[ColchesterFC]

A couple of examples of a total lack of logic yesterday.

2. At Heathrow, arrivals from "red zone" queueing up side by side with those not from the red zone. Massive risk of cross-contamination. Surely it would have been simple to have one queue for red zone and one queue for everyone else?

And the fact that people are flying in from Brazil via Madrid. A couple interviewed yesterday said that they flew from Brazil to Madrid and sat next to people in the airport, queued up with them etc and then flew in to Heathrow. At Heathrow they were separated and taken to the hotel. Again a massive risk of cross contamination.

 

[GB72]

I think you are right and it needs a nation approach. Someone ‘over there’ might not follow restrictions as much if someome ‘elsewhere’ already has more freedoms. National lockdown brought the numbers down, regional restrictions let them go up.

I have to agree with that. I think we should come out of this lockdown as a nation. I know that under the tiering system, there was always a question at the back of my mind about why I could not do something and yet people less than 10 miles down the road in Rutland could. That made compliance feel harder. There were also no end of instances of people going from neighbouring South Kesteven and Leicestershire into Rutland to use pubs and restaurants.

 

[Ethan]

Long Covid is a slight concern, agreed. Using me as an example. I've already had it, felt crap for months. Back to normal now. How can getting it again effect me long term?

In regards to hospitalisation stays. 103 under 44's admitted to hospital due to covid, nationwide is the highest weekly toll this year. Thanks to @Hobbit 's dataset I didn't know existed! Not entirely sure, but proportionally that's nothing compared to other causes I'd imagine? So not sure that's a reasonable concern.

Must add, stayed at Whipps Cross ICU for a bit, everyone was absolutely fantastic and treated me amazingly. Not the norm in the slightest, but it doesn't have to be traumatic!

You keep choosing different age cut-offs for your pieces of data. That always suggests selection of data to suit the argument.

Covid is a systemic inflammatory condition. It can cause subclinical effects in major organs from the brain to the kidneys and some of these effects do not cause immediate problems. I expect that in a year or two we will start to see an increase in cases of liver fibrosis, renal impairment and heart failure amongst younger than usual people. There are reports of increased numbers of children with Type I Diabetes due to pancreatic damage. One case series in the US looked at college athletes affected in an outbreak and myocardial (heart) abnomrlaiites were found in almost of those examined. There is a lot of bad stuff being stored up and we need to avoid people getting this nasty disease unnecessarily.

 

[Deleted member 21784]

I'm not sure that'd go down well, for most they just want a bit of socialisation with people and so telling them that they're in Tier 3 until May really doesn't change their lives much from being in lockdown now.

It does tho

The rule of six outside returns

Golf returns

Gyms and pools open

Giving people exercise and up to 6 outside gives return of bit of socialising

Tier 2 in may when weather turns gets booze with a proper meal in a pub

Then tier 1 gets rule of 6 inside but with being summer less chance of people being inside

Gives the gov chance to get everyone jabbed

 

[DanFST]

You keep choosing different age cut-offs for your pieces of data. That always suggests selection of data to suit the argument.

Covid is a systemic inflammatory condition. It can cause subclinical effects in major organs from the brain to the kidneys and some of these effects do not cause immediate problems. I expect that in a year or two we will start to see an increase in cases of liver fibrosis, renal impairment and heart failure amongst younger than usual people. There are reports of increased numbers of children with Type I Diabetes due to pancreatic damage. One case series in the US looked at college athletes affected in an outbreak and myocardial (heart) abnomrlaiites were found in almost of those examined. There is a lot of bad stuff being stored up and we need to avoid people getting this nasty disease unnecessarily.

I edited the above post. No agenda with the data boundaries. It's just nothing is standardised! I do think the Gov website using 18-64 is disingenuous however.

So i'm already screwed then! Uplifting morning.

 

[Leftitshort]

We lockdown to protect everybody. Just because you are young, doesn't mean you want some of the nasty effects of Covid. It isn't over when the symptoms stop. Covid has a few time bombs available.

Any info on the threat of long COVID, in younger patients? I hear it spoken about, there is some anecdotal info but nothing specific. Speaking as someone whose had it. albeit a mild version, luckily I didn’t get the South African super version.
I don’t mean to belittle long COVID but is there enough proof it exists in enough cases to justify general measures?